In the UK, gay couples have more rights than unmarried people in straight relationships

Thursday, 12 October 2017, 07:25:04 PM. As same-sex couples in Australia argue for the right to marry, in the United Kingdom, it is unmarried heterosexual couples fighting for legal recognition of their relationships.

There are five weeks to go until the ABS reveals how Australians voted in the same-sex marriage survey, but as gay couples here argue for the right to marry, in the United Kingdom, it is heterosexual couples fighting for legal recognition of their relationships.

In Britain, same-sex couples have the best of both worlds. Civil partnerships were established in 2004, and after a decade-long campaign by gay rights advocates, the UK government legalised same-sex marriage in England and Wales from 2014.

But if you are a straight couple you have only one legal option — marriage.

Melbourne-born human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell is gay and has fought hard in the UK for equal recognition of same-sex relationships.

Now he is fighting for heterosexuals to have the same rights.

"When the Labour government introduced civil partnerships in 2004 and declared they would only apply to same-sex couples, I immediately felt this was very unfair," he said.

"So, I began a campaign, with others, to press the Government to widen the legislation so it would apply to both same-sex and opposite-sex couples. But sadly, the Government rejected that."

It is a frustrating situation for many opposite-sex couples, among them journalist and education campaigner Fiona Millar, and her partner, former Blair government advisor Alastair Campbell.

Photo: Fiona Millar and Alastair Campbell, pictured left, have been together for 37 years. (Reuters)

They have been together for 37 years and have three children, but Millar says she never wanted to get married.

"I've never felt particularly comfortable with the patriarchal overtones of it all," she said.

"If the right to marriage or civil partnerships hadn't been given to same-sex couples then I don't think I'd have felt as strongly about it, but it seems completely wrong that we're being discriminated against now."

Unlike Australia, the UK does not recognise de facto partners, and yet millions of Britons choose to live together.

According to the British Office for National Statistics (ONS), the number of "cohabiting couple families" doubled from 1996 to 2016, from 1.5 million families to 3.3 million families.

Mr Tatchell says many of them have no idea there is no legal framework to protect them and their children if their relationship ends, but he says there is broad public support to change that.

"Whenever the question is put, should opposite-sex couples have the same right to a civil partnership as a same-sex couple, the overwhelming majority of people say 'yes'," he said.

"Where a law exists, it should apply evenly ... the idea that an opposite-sex couple cannot by law have a civil partnership just strikes most people as absurd and bizarre."

What rights do civil partnerships give couples?

The rights of civil partners in the UK are essentially the same as those who are married.

They get the same property rights and the same rules apply on social security, pension benefits, life insurance and inheritance tax exemptions.

They also have the same responsibilities for maintenance of their children and partner.

Next of kin rights apply if a partner ends up in hospital. And if you want to end your civil partnership, there is a formal process which is much like divorce.

Opponents, church and state have argued providing an alternative to marriage undermines both the institution and the family.

Former prime minister David Cameron rejected the extension of civil partnerships to heterosexual couples, saying he was a "marriage man".

Millar says the Government would prefer not to have civil partnerships at all.

"The Government's argument is we just want to wait and see if civil partnerships wither on the vine. So, if more gay couples opt for marriage ... then we can get rid of them altogether," she said.

There was certainly a decline in civil partnerships after same-sex marriage was legalised in 2014, but last year the number of civil partnerships rose from 925 in 2015, to 960 in 2016.

However, the ONS statistics also showed more civil partnerships were dissolved than formed.

The next few months will be critical for the Equal Civil Partnership Campaign, with a private members bill on the issue due for its second reading in the House of Commons in February, and a legal challenge going to the UK's highest court.

Charles Keidan and Rebecca Steinfeld began their legal battle for a civil partnership when they were refused one back in 2014.

The Supreme Court, has now agreed to hear their case, after the Court of Appeal stated the current ban on civil partnerships for opposite-sex couples could not continue indefinitely.

However, in a split ruling, it gave the Government more time to decide what it wanted to do about the anomaly.

Millar says the Government has two choices: it can equalise the situation and give civil partnerships to opposite-sex couples, or it can get rid of civil partnerships altogether.

"But I don't think that would be popular. It'd be seen as a retrograde step," she said.

Mr Tatchell could not agree more.

"I've been a champion of equal marriage for same-sex couples. I feel just as passionately that opposite-sex couples should have the right to civil partnerships, and that discrimination should be ended," he said.

"In a democracy everyone should be equal before the law. Discrimination is fundamentally against the principle of human rights for all."

Civil partnerships are available to opposite-sex couples on The Isle of Man, which is a self-governing British Crown dependency.

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